Update 3: On May 31, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 received another patch on Xbox One. While the update improves frame rate issues and loading times, they’re still not that great. Even weeks after release, a lot of work is needed.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 launches on Xbox One on April 25 but we’ve been playing the game for the past few days on the system. As mentioned in our review, the game suffers from substantial frame rate drops and other visuals issues. For example, the frame rate during the majority of the game appears to be closer to 25 FPS than 30 FPS. While it hits 30 FPS during some environments—particularly at night when there are less shadows and reduced lighting effects—it still poses a significant hinderance to enjoying the game. If you’re able to, play all the missions at night so you don’t experience the unplayable frame rate problems because shadows and advanced lighting effects make it much worse.

Apart from that, there is an extreme amount of texture pop-in and other glitches. For example, enemies tend to clip through objects and your arms when you’re interrogating them. Sometimes their bodies also disappear. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 needs a significant amount of optimization on Xbox One in order to address all of these concerns. While the glitches aren’t game-breaking, the poor frame rate is and certain areas slow to an absolute crawl. Our estimate would be around 15 FPS in certain scenarios.

Hopefully CI Games will release a patch soon because the game will get lambasted if they don’t. At the very least, the developers should acknowledge the problems and provide a timeline for the patch to Xbox One owners. It’s unclear if other versions of the game also exhibit the same issues as we were only provided with an Xbox One copy.

Update 1: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was supposed to have multiplayer at launch but the mode has been delayed. A statement provided to us by CI Games said:

“Throughout our development of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, we have had two foci: the first is to provide the best possible single-player experience in our most ambitious game in the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series to date. This has always been our goal and we are extremely proud of all the work we have done, and that we share with you. The second emphasis from us is to provide regular content updates post launch, focusing on content that enhances the gaming experience. Therefore, we have chosen to release the multiplayer update (that will be free for our players) after launch (the third quarter of 2017) for precisely the above reasons, that is not to dilute any potential from the single-player experience.”

While many gamers will be disappointed, CI Games need to focus on Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3’s performance and fix the copious glitches. Only after these issues have been resolved should they add the multiplayer portions in. Hopefully the developers will fix these problems soon.

Update 2: CI Games directly addressed the long loading times and frame rate problems in their latest statement provided to the press. CI Games’ CEO Marek Tyminski said:

“First off, we’d like to thank everyone who has supported us in our endeavor to make the best sniper experience possible. It takes a huge amount of effort in order to make a game on the scale of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, and we’re committed to making the game even better as we continue to support this past release. The game is being received well in the market and we are collecting valuable feedback from players and are actively taking steps to make sure that Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is even better moving forward. So, I wanted to explain what our plans are in support for the game:

Before we release any more content for the game, we have dedicated staff working diligently to further optimize Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 to ensure fewer issues with frame rate and loading times.

Only once we feel that proper headway has been made on the system performance, will we begin adding extras such as the much-requested multiplayer component.

We’re 100% committed to making the best game we can. Thanks again to all of the people who have supported us so far. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

It’s great that the company came out and acknowledged the problems. Hopefully they’ll release patches soon to fix the severe problems on Xbox One in the coming days to weeks, instead of months.

Update 3: On May 19, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 received another patch on Xbox One. The update came in at around 5.7 GB but didn’t fix the severe frame rate problems. CI Games claim that it reduced loading times but in our testing that didn’t appear to be the case. The frame rate problems seem worse now. The patch didn’t addresses the most significant issue the title faces on Xbox One: the frame rate is constantly around 25 FPS and should be 30 FPS.

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